2013 British Grand Prix (June 28 - 30)

[Wouter Melissen]

Vying for the seat that will be vacated at Red Bull by Webber at the end of the year, Ricciardo topped a very wet first practice:

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m54.249s 10
2. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m55.033s + 0.784s 7
3. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m55.354s + 1.105s 7
4. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m55.458s + 1.209s 5
5. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m55.825s + 1.576s 9
6. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m56.361s + 2.112s 7
7. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m57.891s + 3.642s 4
8. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m58.859s + 4.610s 6
9. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m59.719s + 5.470s 7
10. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m59.876s + 5.627s 8
11. Felipe Massa Ferrari 2m06.534s + 12.285 6
12. Nico Rosberg Mercedes no time 3
13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes no time 4
14. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault no time 1
15. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes no time 1
16. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes no time 4
17. Fernando Alonso Ferrari no time 4
18. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault no time 1
19. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes no time 1
20. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault no time 3
21. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault no time 4
22. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault no time 0

British GP: Daniel Ricciardo leads rain-hit first practice - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

[Wouter Melissen]

Hamilton will start his home Grand Prix on pole while Paul DiRest was stripped from his fifth place on the grid after he was found 1.5 kg under weight:

Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m29.607s
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m30.059s + 0.452s
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m30.211s + 0.604s
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m30.220s + 0.613s
5. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m30.736s + 1.129s
6. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m30.757s + 1.150s
7. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m30.908s + 1.301s
8. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m30.955s + 1.348s
9. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m30.962s + 1.355s
10. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m30.979s + 1.372s
Q2 cut-off time: 1m31.592s Gap **
11. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m31.649s + 0.659s
12. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m31.779s + 0.789s
13. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m31.785s + 0.795s
14. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m32.082s + 1.092s
15. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m32.211s + 1.221s
16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m32.359s + 1.369s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m32.512s Gap *
17. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m32.664s + 1.669s
18. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m32.666s + 1.671s
19. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m33.866s + 2.871s
20. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m34.108s + 3.113s
21. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m35.481s + 4.486s
22. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m35.858s + 4.863s

British GP: Hamilton storms to pole ahead of Rosberg - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

[RacingManiac]

Tires....that is all...

[Ferrer]

Who wants to have Pirellis on his car?

Or.

Does anyone have them currently?

[Ferrer]

Has to be said, though, random tyre explosions makes F1 slightly interesting...

[Ferrer]

Vettel out!

No explosion, though... bugger

[RacingManiac]

Has to be said, though, random tyre explosions makes F1 slightly interesting...

lol

I dunno, didn't stop me buying Michelin after 2005 though....

To be fair, I have Bridgestone now....

[RacingManiac]

BTW, Silverstone is the perfect F1 track. Insanely fast with real corners.....all tracks for F1 cars should be like Silverstone....

[Matra et Alpine]

Totally disagree TM, Silverstone is one of the most boring , flat, old-airfield-style tracks. Even the digging of the "bomb hole" to try to add some interest with some height variation didn't do it for me

In UK, Brands is a much better RACE track and Donnington Park too, sadly the most boring track gets the backing and the money

[RacingManiac]

I said specifically F1 track. On road car(or tin top) I can see it's a bore. But its a track made for downforce cars. F1 car AVERAGES almost 150mph there, and the track is not not Monza where its 3 200mph straights connected by some corners.

Some of the "corner" on F1 cars are probably flat out "curved straights" if your car is not those 700+ bhp car.

Of course for the insane, a downforce track with elevation and little runoff will be more exciting, but they won't suit modern F1 cars any more....Mosport for example....2008 spec Audi R10 averages 133mph around Mosport....or 5mph faster than this year's WEC pole time....F1 car probably could touch 150-160mph average speed around Mosport....

[Ferrer]

Well, worry no more because apparently Monza could be out for 2014.

[RacingManiac]

Also, they can actually race wheel to wheel in F1 car at Silverstone, something that is harder to do in some other fast track.....

It might be boring for you in your RX-8, its no F1 car....Same reason too I don't understand people are flocking to Circuit of the America to do track day in road car....25 lane wide with corners made for 150+mph apex speed at 4-5G are not going to be very exciting for cars that can barely touch 150mph given a straight...

[Matra et Alpine]

RM, Brands and Donnington were tracks both capable and safety approved for F1. BUT British Motorsport authorities screwed it up by getting in to commercial deals with Silverstone track owners, thus limiting the income to the other tracks but more importantly pushing the media and support to their preferred supplier
There are more 5-star hotels lining Bernie's pockets at Silverstone

I *AM* coming from F1 and single seaters. Not "trackdays". Any track is awesome for trackdays for road cars.
For competition cars then undulation, camber and altered radius curves are WAY more challenging to the driver, car and enjoyed by the spectators. Give more overtaking opportunities because they all mean there are multiple lines through sequences of corners.
Silverstone is a s***hole ashamed to have it as the British round and reflects the money-chasing that Bernie brought in which peaked with those awful street tracks

Also, re downforce, Silverstone is ALL about downforce because it lacks corners and features that limit the teams ability to add downforce. So thus becomes boring ... UNTIL you introduce artificial aids. It's these shitty tracks and consistent curve corners that meant features had to be added. IF they made the track more challenging so that you couldn't just wind up the downforce till it matched the top speed need and instead had to consider camber and elevation changes it would be better. F1 is walking along a path it needed to backtrack on about 10 years ago Sadly Bernie and money will continue the decimation of the sport. In 10 years time be as well with a scalextric track ( and I think the student FSAA cars are making it worse by not really having to tackle the wider difficulties and I hope that once the current generations peak at what you can do on flat(ish) tarmac they'll move to more complex surfaces )

[RacingManiac]

Not agreeing with you at all(but then when have I ever, lol). I've never found Silverstone boring as a race. Even pre-KERS/DRS/Pirelli tire days. While as you say you can just pile on downforce for Tracks like Silverstone, its the case for Catalunya, Magny-Cours, and even Suzuka. And those races have the tendency to be processional because they are tight and can't actually let cars go side by side into the fast bits.

I'd rather they race modern cars on tracks with similar chracteristics like Silverstone where they would actually put their 3+ G cornering capability on display, then going to slow tracks like Valencia or Singapore where its just stupid to race a downforce car on.